25% of curriculum or more: Somewhere between a quarter and half of the curriculum focuses on religion.

Up to 25% of curriculum: There are a few required religion courses. Students take one or two religion courses per term, or a few a year.

No compulsory religion courses: There are no compulsory religion courses. But the school is traditionally associated with a religion, or has a religious heritage.

25% of curriculum or more

Up to 25% of curriculum

No compulsory religion courses

Integration of religious and secular curricula

Completely integrated: The school combines the teaching of religious and secular subjects for the entire, or almost the entire, day. Almost all of the units integrate secular and religious instruction.

Mostly integrated: The school integrates most of the religious and secular subjects. A few secular and religious subjects are taught on their own, though, without the direct influence of the other domain.

Mostly segregated: The school mostly segregates or separate secular and religious curricula. They teach very few, if any, secular and religious subjects together, and they don't combine them in any significant ways.

Completely segregated: The school completely segregates or separate secular and religious curricula. They don't teach them together or combine them in any ways.

Completely integrated

Mostly integrated

Mostly segregated

Completely segregated

Perspective taught on scripture

Scripture as literal: Religious scripture is a factual text that is literally the word of God. Our task is to understand it and clarify its meaning.

Scripture as interpretive: Religious scripture, while the word of God, is open to interpretation and discussion.

Scripture as literal

Scripture as interpretive

Core school focus

Schools are allowed to select only one core focus for their school, from the five options provided, (Academic, Arts-intensive, Sports-intensive, Technology-intensive, Military)

Academic

Arts-intensive

Sports-intensive

Technology-intensive

Military

Curriculum type

Traditional: Content delivery is direct and intended to promote facility and fluency with a set of core academic skills.

Progressive: Progressive (sometimes called "inquiry based" or "discovery based") curricula use students' interests and their natural curiosity as the driver for instruction.

Liberal Arts: This approach typically combines both traditional and progressive classroom practices, but places a special emphasis on academic over vocational learning.

Mainstream

Traditional

Liberal arts

Progressive

Alternative

Montessori

International Baccalaureate

Waldorf

Reggio Emilia

IB Diploma program

IB Middle Years program

IB Primary Years program

Preschool / Kindergarten approach

Play-based

Montessori

Waldorf

Reggio Emilia

Academic

Developmental priorities

We allow schools to identify two priorities from the options below:

Intellectual: The goal is to cultivate academically strong, creative, and critical thinkers, capable of exercising rationality, apprehending truth, and making aesthetic distinctions.

Emotional: The goal is to cultivate emotionally intelligent and confident individuals, capable of leading both themselves and others.

Social: The goal is to cultivate socially aware and active citizens, motivated to change the world (or their community) for the better.

Physical: The goal is to cultivate strong, flexible-bodie, and active individuals, in tune with the joys of movement, sport, and wellness.

Spiritual: The goal is to cultivate individuals with inner resourcefulness, strong faith, and respect for God or a higher power.

Balanced: Equal emphasis is placed on a balance of priorities: intellectual, emotional, social, and physical cultivation.

Standard: The curriculum paces the provincially-outlined one. This pace is steady and set by the teachers and school. The curriculum might still be enriched in various ways: covering topics more in-depth and with more vigor than the provincial one, or covering a broader selection of topics.

Accelerated: The main curriculum accelerates beyond the pace of the provincial one; all students do the work of older public-school peers in tangible and measurable ways, (textbook selection, topic selection, grading, assignment standards and expectations, etc).

Student-paced: The curriculum pace is non-standardized and is highly responsive to the pacing of individual students, (via differentiated instruction, differentiated assessment, etc).

Standard

Accelerated

Student-paced

Academic culture

Rigorous: A high value placed on academic performance, and an expectation students will do the same. High expectations and standards – and a challenging yet rewarding curriculum – are the common themes here.

Supportive: A focus on process over short-term outcomes: academic performance is a welcomed side-benefit, but not the driving focus. A high priority placed on instilling in students a love of learning and life-long curiosity.

Rigorous

Supportive

Maximum class size

Subject pedagogies

Math

Traditional Math: Traditional Math aims to establish proceedural understanding before conceptual and applied understanding. Traditional algorithms are practised regularly: repetition and drills are used to ensure foundational mastery in the underlying mathematical proceedures.

Discovery Math: Discovery Math aims to establish conceptual and applied understanding before proceedural understanding. It frequently begins by introducing a novel problem to students, and students work their way back to "discovering" an ad hoc method of solving the problem.

Balanced Math: These math programs feature an equal balance of Traditional and Discovery methods. Often they will use textbooks and supplementary materials from both sides of the math debate.

Traditional Math

Discovery Math

Equal Balance

Reading

Phonics Reading: Phonics programs teach young children to read by helping them to recognize and sound out the letters and syllables of words.

Whole Language: Whole Language programs focus on helping young children infer and guess at words based on their understanding of the larger meaning of the sentence.

Balanced Literacy: These programs are typically based on Whole Language programs but provide supplementary phonics training.

Phonics-intensive

Whole Language

Balanced Literacy

Computers and technology

Light integration: Computers are used in the classroom from time to time, but integrating technology into everything students do is not a dominant focus -- and this is intentional.

Heavy integration: A major effort is made to integrate the development of digital literacy throughout the curriculum and in evrything students do.

Medium integration: Effort is made to integrate the development of digital literacy through the curriculum. However, this is not a dominant focus.

Dedicated special needs school: These schools are exclusively focused on serving students with moderate-to-severe learning disabilities and/or special needs.

Full-time special needs class : Students are placed in a separate special education class, (within the context of a regular school).

Special needs class with partial integration: Students are placed in a separate special education class, but are strategically integrated into a regular classroom for certain periods.

Dedicated special needs school

Full-time special needs class

Special needs class with partial integration

Integrated

Regular class with withdrawal assistance: Students remain in a regular classroom for most of the day, but are pulled out for extra support from a qualified special education teacher.

Regular class with resource assistance: Students remain in a regular classroom for the whole day, and periodically receive break-out support (individually or in small groups) within the classroom from a qualified special education teacher.

Regular class with indirect support: Students remain in a regular classroom for the whole day; the teacher receives special training in accommodating special needs and/or learning disabled students.